Last Ocean exhibit opens at the United States National Museum of Wildlife Art

Shortly after reading a paper on threats facing Antarctica’s Ross Sea, the award-winning Boulder-based photographer John Weller became part of a team dedicated to saving this last pristine open ocean ecosystem on Earth. On October 6, Weller will be in Jackson Hole, Wyo., to present an exhibition of his intimate photos capturing the at-risk environment: “The Last Ocean: Antarctica’s Ross Sea Photographs by John Weller” will be on display October 1, 2011 – January 29, 2012, at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

“Adélie penguins, Weddell seals, minke whales, scientists and Southern Ocean fisherman are all bound together,” says Weller. “The Ross Sea story is not just about science, not just about the incredible organisms that live at the edge of the world. It is a story of interconnected communities. It is our story, the story of our struggle to become sustainable.

Through his remarkable photographs, Weller celebrates the Ross Sea as one of the last healthy marine environments, offering a glimpse into the lives of wildlife from Emperor penguins to silverfish, inhabiting the remote region both above and below the ocean’s surface. Weller, a SeaWeb fellow and photographer/writer based in Boulder, Colo., received a 2009 Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation to support his work to promote protection of the Ross Sea. For more information on those efforts and to view the exhibit online, visit John Weller’s photography website, or The Last Ocean Charitable Trust website. The exhibit is sponsored in part by Antarctica Ocean Alliance.